BILL NUMBER: SB 808	INTRODUCED
	BILL TEXT


INTRODUCED BY   Senator Wolk

                        FEBRUARY 27, 2009

   An act to add Chapter 4 (commencing with Section 12228) to Part
4.5 of Division 6 of the Water Code, relating to the San Francisco
Bay/Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta Estuary, and declaring the urgency
thereof, to take effect immediately.



	LEGISLATIVE COUNSEL'S DIGEST


   SB 808, as introduced, Wolk. San Francisco Bay/Sacramento-San
Joaquin Delta Estuary: strategic work plan.
   Under existing law, various state agencies administer programs
relating to water supply, water quality, and flood management in the
San Francisco Bay/Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta Estuary.
   This bill would require the State Water Resources Control Board to
implement its resolution entitled the Strategic Workplan for Actions
to Protect Beneficial Uses of the San Francisco Bay/Sacramento-San
Joaquin Delta Estuary by commencing an investigation of the
reasonableness of the methods of diversions from the Sacramento-San
Joaquin Delta used by the State Water Project and the federal Central
Valley Project, ensuring that the implementation is consistent with
its duties to protect the public trust and prevent the waste,
unreasonable use, unreasonable method of use, or unreasonable method
of diversion of water, and taking other action. The state board would
be required to prepare related quarterly reports, which the state
board would be required to make available to the public and to post
on the state board's Internet Web site.
   This bill would declare that it is to take effect immediately as
an urgency statute.
   Vote: 2/3. Appropriation: no. Fiscal committee: yes.
State-mandated local program: no.


THE PEOPLE OF THE STATE OF CALIFORNIA DO ENACT AS FOLLOWS:

  SECTION 1.  The Legislature finds and declares all of the
following:
   (a) Pursuant to its statutory authority, the State Water Resources
Control Board has issued numerous orders and decisions regarding
water quality and water right requirements affecting the
Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta.
   (b) Under Section 275 of the Water Code, the state board is
charged with the duty to take all appropriate proceedings before
executive, legislative, or judicial agencies to prevent wast,
unreasonable use, unreasonable method of use, or unreasonable method
of diversion of water in this state.
   (c) The Legislature has found the water problems of the
Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta to be unique within the state,
recognizing the special role this estuary plays in the provision of
water to serve numerous purposes, and the problem of salinity
intrusion into the vast network of channels and sloughs of the Delta.

   (d) In Resolution No. 20008-0056, enacted on July 16, 2008, the
state board adopted its Strategic Workplan for Actions to Protect
Beneficial Uses of the San Francisco Bay/Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta
Estuary (strategic workplan). The strategic workplan describes the
actions that the state and the California regional water quality
control boards will complete to protect beneficial uses of water in
the Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta, and provides timelines and resource
needs for implementing the actions.
   (e) In enacting the strategic workplan, the state board
represented that it will consider later modifications as necessary to
protect beneficial uses in the estuary. The strategic workplan also
recognizes that the state board has a responsibility pursuant to the
California Constitution and the Water Code to take action to prevent
the waste, unreasonable use, unreasonable method of use, or
unreasonable method of diversion of water in California.
   (f) The strategic workplan's timeline of activities anticipates
the performance of its principal tasks between 2008 and 2013.
   (g) Among the concerns referenced in the strategic workplan is
that the State Water Project's and federal Central Valley Project's
methods of diversion in the southern Delta may not be secure and
sustainable and may be having adverse impacts on fish and wildlife
and other beneficial uses of water in the Delta.
   (h) Notwithstanding this concern, the strategic workplan does not
require the state board to promptly investigate the reasonableness of
the methods of diversion by the projects in accordance with the
California Constitution and Section 275 of the Water Code. Instead,
the strategic workplan anticipates deferring action until the fourth
quarter of 2010, and taking action only if a voluntary collaboration
of state, federal, and local water agencies does not deliver a plan
satisfactory to the board. The strategic workplan estimates that it
would take the state board a minimum of two personnel years to
conduct this investigation.
   (i) Several factors make it necessary for the state board to
promptly implement the strategic workplan within the identified
timetable, and to commence appropriate investigations on or before
July 1, 2009, and conclude the investigations within two years.
   (j) The Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta Estuary remains in a state of
precarious decline, threatening its beneficial use in the protection
of fish and wildlife. As a consequence of recent litigation
addressing endangered species requirements, the United States Fish
and Wildlife Service has released a new biological opinion of Delta
smelt in late 2008, and the National Marine Fisheries Service
anticipates releasing a new biological opinion for salmon and
steelhead in early 2009. Due to these decisions, substantial new
reductions in project water deliveries from the Delta are likely to
occur.
   (k) As the Department of Water Resources has recognized in its own
reports, climate change is likely to have significant and adverse
effects on California's water supply projects and the Sacramento-San
Joaquin Delta.
   (l) The drought conditions presently facing California are
creating further strains in the ability of the Sacramento-San Joaquin
Delta to serve beneficial uses.
  SEC. 2.  Chapter 4 (commencing with Section 12228) is added to Part
4.5 of Division 6 of the Water Code, to read:
      CHAPTER 4.  STRATEGIC WORKPLAN


   12228.  This part shall be known and may be cited as the
Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta Protection Act of 2009.
   12228.4.  As part of its implementation of its Strategic Workplan
for Actions to Protect Beneficial Uses of the San
Francisco/Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta Estuary, the state board shall
do all of the following:
   (a) Commence an investigation of the reasonableness of the methods
of diversion from the Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta used by the State
Water Project and the federal Central Valley Project, in accordance
with its authority under Section 2 of Article X of the California
Constitution and Section 275, to commence no later than July 1, 2009,
and to conclude within two years.
   (b) In all other respects, implement the strategic workplan in
accordance with the timetable referenced in its timeline of
activities.
   (c) Ensure that its implementation of the strategic workplan is
consistent with its duties to protect the public trust, and to
prevent the waste, unreasonable use, unreasonable method of use, or
unreasonable method of diversion of water in California.
   (d) Ensure that its implementation of the strategic workplan fully
considers all of the following:
   (1) The instream flow and other biological requirements necessary
to ensure the long-term health of fish and wildlife resources served
by the Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta.
   (2) The anticipated effects of climate change on the water
resources of the two water projects, and the condition of the
Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta.
   (3) The effect of drought conditions upon the ability of the
Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta to serve beneficial uses.
   12228.8.  The state board shall prepare quarterly reports which
shall be available to the public and posted on its Internet Web site,
describing its implementation of the strategic workplan. These
reports shall disclose whether the state board anticipates any
revisions in the schedules referenced in Section 12228.4, and
demonstrate good cause for any further delays in the schedule.
  SEC. 3.  This act is an urgency statute necessary for the immediate
preservation of the public peace, health, or safety within the
meaning of Article IV of the Constitution and shall go into immediate
effect. The facts constituting the necessity are:
   In order to facilitate the implementation of the Strategic
Workplan for Actions to Protect Beneficial Uses of the San
Francisco/Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta Estuary by the State Water
Resources Control Board, as soon as possible, it is necessary for
this act to take effect immediately.